Grace Kelly on TCM: REAR WINDOW, THE COUNTRY GIRL
James Stewart, Grace Kelly in Rear Window
Turner Classic Movies‘ Grace Kelly series continues this Thursday, Nov. 12, with three of Kelly’s biggest hits, all from 1954: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and The Country Girl. Kelly, who died in 1982 following a car accident in Monaco, would have turned 80 on Nov. 12.
Some consider Dial M for Murder a minor Alfred Hitchcock effort. Personally, I find it more enjoyable than Hitchcock’s revered Rear Window. Part of the reason is a pair of deadly scissors found in the former but not in the latter; yet, I’d say that the chief reason is that neither one of Kelly’s leading men in Dial M for Murder is James Stewart. Instead, [...]
by Andre Soares | November 10, 2009
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Classic Movies, Dial M for Murder, George Seaton, Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Oscar 1954, Oscar Movies, Ray Milland, Rear Window, The Country Girl, Thelma Ritter, Turner Classic Movies
Grace Kelly: TO CATCH A THIEF, THE SWAN
Grace Kelly on TCM: Part I
Thanks to Kelly’s Oscar win, The Country Girl is interesting as a historical curiosity — it’s the sort of "gutsy" and "realistic" film adaptation of a respected stage play that was very popular among the filmgoing elite of the 1950s (e.g., Tea and Sympathy, A Hatful of Rain), but that I generally find both lame and artificial. Bing Crosby’s drunk is about as convincing as Kelly’s frumpish housewife (a role that should have gone to original choice Jennifer Jones), but that didn’t prevent a number of Academy members from making sure Crosby, director George Seaton, and the film itself received Academy Award nominations. Seaton, in fact, did win an Oscar for his [...]
by Andre Soares | November 5, 2009
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: Classic Movies, George Seaton, Grace Kelly, Green Fire, High Society, The Country Girl, The Rockingham Tea Set, The Swan, To Catch a Thief, Turner Classic Movies
Grace Kelly on TCM
Stating the obvious: most people take great pleasure in idealizing their idols — which is why idols are idols.
Whether we’re talking of gods, saints, prophets, or pop stars, the process is pretty much the same: flaws are expunged, deeds that never took place are turned into (at times miraculous) facts, the Pantheon of the Immortals becomes their abode following their earthly demise. (In some extreme cases — assorted gods, Elvis — the idol in question doesn’t die, period.)
Grace Kelly, Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month, is one of the lofty ones now dwelling in the aforementioned Pantheon. True, the flesh-and-bood Philadelphia-born (Nov. 12, 1929) woman (nee Grace Patricia Kelly) may have been quite different [...]
by Andre Soares | November 5, 2009
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Classic Movies, Dial M for Murder, George Seaton, Grace Kelly, Rear Window, The Country Girl, Turner Classic Movies
Best Films – 1947
Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, David Farrar in Black Narcissus
FILM
Black Narcissus
d, scr: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Cheyenne
d: Raoul Walsh; scr: Alan Le May, Thames Williamson
Crossfire
d: Edward Dmytryk; scr: John Paxton
Down to Earth
d: Alexander Hall; scr: Edwin Blum, Don Hartman
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
d: Joseph L. Mankiewicz; scr: Philip Dunne
Life with Father
d: Michael Curtiz; scr: Donald Ogden Stewart
Miracle on 34th Street
d, scr: George Seaton
Monsieur Vincent
d: Maurice Cloche; scr: Jean Bernard Luc, Jean Anouilh
Mourning Becomes Electra
d, scr: Dudley Nichols
Nicholas Nickleby
d: Alberto Cavalcanti; scr: John Dighton
The Perils of Pauline
d: George Marshall; scr: P. J. Wolfson, Frank Butler
CHECK THESE OUT
Body and Soul
d: Robert Rossen; scr: Abraham Polonsky
A Double Life
d: George Cukor; [...]
by Andre Soares | August 31, 2004
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: A Double Life, Abraham Polonsky, Alan Le May, Alberto Cavalcanti, Alexander Hall, Allen Rivkin, Anne Revere, Aubrey Woods, Audrey Totter, Bernard Herrmann, Betty Hutton, Black Narcissus, Body and Soul, Brian Easdale, Carol Reed, Cedric Hardwicke, Charles B. Lang, Charles Bickford, Charles Chaplin, Cheyenne, Claudette Colbert, Crossfire, Curtis Bernhardt, David Farrar, Deborah Kerr, Dolores del Rio, Don Hartman, Donald Ogden Stewart, Down to Earth, Dudley Nichols, Edmund Gwenn, Edward Dmytryk, Edwin Blum, Elwood Bredell, Emeric Pressburger, Ethel Barrymore, F. L. Green, Frank Butler, Frank Davis, Gabriel Figueroa, Garson Kanin, Gene Tierney, Geoffrey Homes, George Barnes, George Cukor, George Marshall, George Seaton, Ginger Rogers, H. C. Potter, Harry Stradling, Heinz Roemheld, Henry Fonda, Irene Dunne, It Had to Be You, Jack Cardiff, Jacques Tourneur, James Mason, James Wong Howe, Jean Anouilh, Jean Bernard Luc, Jean Renoir, Joan Crawford, John Dighton, John Ford, John Paxton, Joseph A. Valentine, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Lady in the Lake, Laura Kerr, Life with Father, Lilli Palmer, Lloyd Gough, Lord Berners, Loretta Young, Marjorie Main, Martha Raye, Mary Merrall, Maureen O'Hara, Maurice Cloche, Max Steiner, May Hallatt, Michael Curtiz, Michael Hogan, Michael Powell, Miracle on 34th Street, Monsieur Vincent, Mourning Becomes Electra, Nicholas Nickleby, Odd Man Out, Out of the Past, P. J. Wolfson, Peverell Marley, Philip Dunne, Pierre Fresnay, Possessed, Pursued, R. C. Sheriff, Ranald MacDougall, Raoul Walsh, Rex Harrison, Richard Hageman, Ride the Pink Horse, Rita Hayworth, Robert Krasker, Robert Montgomery, Robert Rossen, Robert Ryan, Roland Culver, Ronald Colman, Ruth Gordon, Signe Hasso, Silvia Richards, Thames Williamson, The Egg and I, The Farmer's Daughter, The Fugitive, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Perils of Pauline, The Sea of Grass, The Unsuspected, The Woman on the Beach, Van Heflin, Vida Hope, William Alwyn, William Conrad, William Powell, William V. Skall
Best Films – 1943
Set in a 17th-century Danish village, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterful Vredens dag / Day of Wrath is a stark, but deeply felt indictment against religious fanaticism and intolerance. Moving performances by ingénue Lisbeth Modin and accused witch Anna Svierkier add a touch of humanity to the horrors shown on screen. It is not a coincidence that Vredens Dag was made in 1943, a time when Denmark was under Nazi occupation. The parallels — and the interconnectedness — between political and religious control are made quite clear in this harrowing masterwork.
FILM
Northern Pursuit
d: Raoul Walsh; scr: Frank Gruber, Alvah Bessie
This Land Is Mine
d: Jean Renoir; scr: Dudley Nichols
Vredens dag / Day of Wrath
d: Carl Theodor Dreyer; scr: Carl Dreyer, [...]
by Andre Soares | August 31, 2004
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: Akim Tamiroff, Alvah Bessie, Anna Svierkier, Arthur C. Miller, Best Films, Busby Berkeley, Carl Andersson, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Carmen Miranda, Charles Coburn, Charles Laughton, Charles Van Enger, Classic Movies, Curt Siodmak, Dame May Whitty, Dashiell Hammett, Day of Wrath, Dudley Nichols, Edward Cronjager, Erich von Stroheim, Ernst Lubitsch, Five Graves to Cairo, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Frank Gruber, Gary Cooper, Gene Tierney, George Seaton, Greer Garson, Harry Stradling, Heaven Can Wait, Helmut Dantine, Henry King, Herbert Selpin, Herbert Stothart, Herman Shumlin, I Walked with a Zombie, Ingrid Bergman, J. Carroll Naish, Jacques Tourneur, Jean Arthur, Jean Renoir, Jennifer Jones, Joel McCrea, John F. Seitz, Joseph A. Valentine, Joseph Ruttenberg, Katina Paxinou, Kim Hunter, L'Eternel Retour, Laird Cregar, Lassie Come Home, Lisbeth Modin, Madame Curie, Max Steiner, Northern Pursuit, Patricia Collinge, Paul Lukas, Raoul Walsh, Rex Ingram (actor), Roger Hubert, Sahara, Samson Raphaelson, Shadow of a Doubt, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, So Proudly We Hail, Teresa Wright, The Eternal Return, The Gang's All Here, The Human Comedy, The Lady Takes a Chance, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Seventh Victim, The Song of Bernadette, This Land Is Mine, Titanic, Una O'Connor, Veronica Lake, Vredens Dag, Walter Bullock, Watch on the Rhine, Werner Klingler
